ICEd Out, Episode One: A community in limbo

In recent months, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spent more than $1 billion buying nearly a dozen warehouses in several states. 

The plan is to convert them into immigrant detention centers as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation initiative.  

Two are in Pennsylvania: Tremont Township in Schuylkill County, and Upper Bern Township in Berks County.

The 7,500-person facility proposed for a former Big Lots warehouse in Tremont would be among the largest detention centers in the nation.

As it stands, infrastructure in the rural area cannot support an operation of that scale — and that reality has essentially opened the door for the state government to stall the project. 

The Capital-Star’s Emily Previti spent time reporting in the coal region to find out how the plan is landing.

What she found is a community in limbo — grappling with being thrust into the national immigration debate and, once again,  with the possibility of exploitation by outsiders. 

Her series, “ICEd Out: Detention center plans meet resistance in the  Pa.’s coal region,” begins right next door to ICE’s warehouse with  a daycare center operator trying to navigate uncertainty – and being met with indifference.

Listen now: